The Russian president says the Crimean events are the result of unlawful actions of Ukraine's political forces

BISHKEK, September 16 /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia had not annexed Crimea and that Kiev’s actions had been the root cause behind Crimea’s reunification with Russia.

Russia did not annex that territory, Putin said in a reply to the Ukrainian ambassador at the CIS summit in Bishkek.

"Russia did not annex anything. Whatever happened with Crimea is the result of unlawful actions of certain political forces in Ukraine who had brought the situation to a state coup," the Russian head of state said.

Putin recalled that Crimea had reunified with Russia at the will of the people who inhabited that territory. "These actions are fully compliant with the international law and the United Nations Charter and relevant decisions of the United Nations courts on similar issues, which the United Nations used to have in its international practice," the president stressed.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Nikolay Doroshenko, who represents his country at the CIS summit in Bishkek, objected two items on the agenda. He spoke against Russia’s CIS presidency in view of the fact that Russia had breached international laws and had annexed part of Ukraine’s territory.

"On behalf of Ukraine I have two remarks concerning the agenda, in particular, item three regarding the hand-over of presidency to Russia," he said. "Russia violated international law and annexed part of Ukrainian territory and currently it is contributing to the armed conflict in the east of Ukraine, so for that reason the Ukrainian side finds Russia’s presidency unacceptable."

Putin said that Ukraine has not ratified the Charter of the Commonwealth of Independent States and it is unable to propose any amendments to its activities and procedures.

"As is known, Ukraine has deplorably neither signed nor ratified the CIS Charter and for that reason it can hardly lay claim to the right to make proposals regarding the organizations’ procedures," Putin said.